1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plug-in connector, and more specifically to a plug-in connector for removably connecting a package board (on which various electrical components or parts are mounted as a completed part subassembly) to a back wiring board perpendicular to the package board to construct an assembly unit including a plurality of parallel-arranged package boards.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the above-mentioned assembly unit, optical fiber coupling elements (connectors) are often assembled together with electrical coupling elements (connectors). In usual, dimensional (positional) tolerance of the unit assembly or the electrical coupling elements is on the order of millimeter, while that of optical fiber coupling elements is on the order of several microns. To solve the problem caused by the above-mentioned large difference in tolerance between the electrical and optical connectors, only the optical connectors are so constructed as to be provided with adjustable gaps (floating structure) in the mated portions. That is, since the coupling method is different between the electrical and optical connectors, the electrical and optical connectors are conventionally separated from each other. Therefore, there exist various problems in that: (1) an appropriate space must be provided between the electrical and optical connectors to prevent interference between the two, and therefore the mounting efficiency is low; (2) since a large space is required, the number of electrical connector terminals are reduced markedly; (3) in the case of a small-sized package board (e.g. 100 mm wide boards), only the electrical or optical connector can be mounted.
Further, in the prior-art optical connectors, since there are provided plural guide pins for accurately locating two coupled optical connector housings, and plural connector housing fixing screws for fixing one of the two connector housings at a coupling position guided by the guide pins, separately, it has been difficult to increase the mounting efficiency or the number of optical connectors.
The arrangement of the prior-art plug-in connector will be described in further detail hereinafter with reference to the attached drawings under DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS.